Oil field superheater



June 4, 1935. F. l. EPLEY OIL FIELD SUPERHEATER Filed Sept. 11, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR '/c I. fiPLEY FRED 0. 1

ATTORNEY June 4, 1935. F, 1, EPLEY OIL FIELD SUPERHEATER Filed Sept. 11, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 0 0 0 0 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o 0 o 0 0 o o o ATTORNEY Patented June 4, 1 935 iraooas zc on IiELp sUrERnEA'rER Frederic I Epley, North remain, N. Y., assignor to The Super-heater Company, New .York,N. Y.

Application pt mber 11, 1933, s riai'nm ssasos 3 Claims. (01. 1225-485) My invention relates to separately fired superheaters and aims to provide a simple and economical arrangement for separately fired superheaters adapted for oil field conditions.

5 The majority of drilling installations used at various oil fields are of the steam driven type and it has become good practice to superheat the steam used at such installations. However, conditions in the oil fields have made it standard practice to use small boilers of the internal fire box horizontal fire tube type which are usually built without superheaters and which cannot readily be fitted with superheaters in the field. Those operators of drilling installations who have employed superheated steam and realized its advantages have thus somewhat naturally adopted a separately fired type of superheater.

The superheater Within my invention is of the separately fired type and one adapted to be readily moved from one location to another and to fulfill the requirements of oil field operators who need a steam superheater of the portable class. This type of superheater is light in weight and can be transported while attached to the boiler.

In order that my invention, together with its objects and advantages, may be fully and readily understood, I will now describe in detail an apparatus which is an exemplification of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings and selected from a number of possible embodiments thereof. In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of a boiler and separately fired superheater in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. l.

The arrangement illustrated in the drawings comprises a boiler l0 having an internal fire box l2 and horizontal fire tubes l4, l4 connecting said fire box to a smoke box 16. The tubes l4, l4 extend through a cylindrical chamber formed by an external shell l3. Steam is taken off from boiler l0 through a dome 28 and pipe 22. As illustrated, the pipe 22 connects with a header 24 for saturated steam which forms part of a sup- 45 erheater having a group of superheater units 26, 26 which extend from the header 24 at one side of the shell I 8 beneath such shell toa header 28 for superheated steam on the other side of the shell from header 24. Steam is taken off 50 from header 28 through pipe 30 to the point of use. The units 26 are connected to and sup ported from the headers 24 and 28 in any desired orpreferred manner. While the units 26, 26 as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 consist of single 55 pipes, I do not limit myself to this, as I may employ units of various lengths and various numbers of pipes to suit conditions. Preferably, the units have breakable joints between themselves and the headers, but I do not limit myself to this. Preferably, also, headers 24 and 28 are sup- 5 ported from the upper portion of the shell 18 by means of rods 32, 32 having nuts 34, 34 thereon for engaging lugs 36, 36 on the headers 24 and 28. Rods 32 are connected together at their upper ends by a turn-buckle arrangement. How- 0 ever, I do not limit myself to any particular arrangement for supporting the headers 24 and 28, the said arrangement of rods or turn buckles being disclosed in the prior patent to Wilbur H. Armacost, No. 1,903,970. 15

The: units 26 lie roughly parallel to the under surface of the shell l8 throughout a limited zone thereof and on both sides'o-f said zone I build walls 48, 46 which extend transverse to the axis of shell l8 beneath such shell from side to side 20 thereof and from the ground upwardly into contact with the lower face of such shell, walls 40, 48 extending up nearly to the height of the headers 24 and 28 and having a greater length than the diameter of the shell [8 so that they 25 extend outside the headers 24 and 28. End walls 42, 42 connect the outer ends of the walls 48,- 40 and, together with the top plates 44, 44, assist in forming a combustion chamber 46 beneath the units 26, the top of such combustion cham- 30 her being formed principally by the lower face of shell I8, and in part by the plates 44 and the superheater units 26, 26. A burner 48 is shown in the lower part of the chamber 46 by means of which fuel may be burned to heat the units 35 26 and the gases of combustion may be taken off at one, or both, of the upper corners of chamber 46 as shown at 50.

For a given steam output, the degree of superheat obtained depends upon the amount of fuel 40 which is fired by the burner 48. The fuel supply to this burner 48 should preferably be connected to the fuel supply to the main burner which heats the boiler so that control of both burners can be made to respond simultaneously with load demand. An auxiliary valve can be placed before burner 48 so as to. give control of the degree of superheat.

Since the furnace walls 40 and 42 can be quickly and cheaply constructed on each location, the only additional parts added by this type of superheater will be the bare elements, the headers, saturated steam connecting pipe, the burner, the cover plates, and the short stack if found necessary. This arrangement is low in cost, and eco- 55 nomical to operate. It will be seen also that the units of the superheater and the headers do not need to be separated from the boiler shell for transportation, although they can be easily separated for this purpose if desired.

It is obvious also that the elements of a superheater in accordance with the present invention, while suspended from the boiler, are out of contact with the gases which heat the boiler so that it is not in danger of overheating when the boiler is being forced. Furthermore, a superheater within my invention, while suspended from the boiler, has no effect on draft of the boilerl' What I claim is:

1. The combination with a boiler having an internal fire box and a cylindrical externalsheil portion of a group of superheater units supported beneath said shell portion in positon .to readily radiate heat to an exposed portion thereof and extending from side to side thereof, means forme ing with the under surface of said shella furnace chamber enclosing said units, and firing means for said chamber.

2. The combination with a boiler having internal fire tubes and an external shell portion of a furnace for supplying heating gases to said tubes, a group of superheater units supported from said portion and in position to readily radiate heat to an exposed part thereof, said units lying entirely out of contact with the gases from said furnace for heating said tubes, and means for heating said units.

3. The combination with a boiler having internal fire tubes and an external shell portion of a furnace for supplying heating gases to said tubes, a group of superheater units supported from said portion in positon to readily radiate heat to an exposed part thereof, said units arranged to have .no effect on the draft of said furnace, and means for heating saidunits.

FREDERIC I. EPLEY. 20 

